links of london report,The Department for Business said that as well as benefiting individuals, "the freedom to work for longer will provide a boost to the UK economy".

Employment Relations Minister Edward Davey said: "Retirement should be a matter of choice."

Presently, firms can use DRA to make staff retire at 65.

The scrapping of DRA, which was first proposed by the coalition government back in July of last year, has been confirmed following a consultation process.

The change means that from 6 April, bosses will not be able to issue any notifications for compulsory retirement using the DRA procedure.links londonBetween 6 April and 1 October, only those people who were told before 6 April, and who are due to retire before 1 October, can be compulsorily retired using DRA.

Finally, after 1 October, employers will not be able to use DRA to force staff to retire.

However, although the government is removing DRA, individual employers will still be able to operate a compulsory retirement age "provided that they can objectively justify it".links of london charmsThe Department for Business gives two examples of where this might be the case - for air traffic controllers and police officers.

It added that it had worked with conciliation service Acas to provide comprehensive guidance for companies on the removal of DRA.